With regard to disposable undergarments and in particular with regard to disposable training pants, which are put on by placing the user's feet in the leg openings and sliding the training pants up the legs into position, it is desirable to have a means for opening the training pants so the training pants can be easily removed. This becomes especially important when the training pants are soiled and the soilage could be spread and smeared if the training pants had to be removed by sliding them down the length of one or both legs.
The need for disposable training pants to be openable is well known, and various means of accomplishing this are also known. Additionally, it is known in the art that it is desirable to have a product which is very garment-like in its appearance and feel, so a child will distinguish it from a diaper, and will easily adjust to cloth undergarments.
Most disposable training pants are made openable by providing side seams which are separable. Most of these separable seams are sealed using thermal, ultrasonic, pressure, or adhesive bonding. Despite the effectiveness of this means of making the disposable training pants openable, it requires a seam with a dual function, i.e., the seam has to be strong enough to hold the pants together, yet the seam must also be weak enough to be separable. These types of seams, also, do not provide the desired garment-like appearance unless an inwardly facing seam is provided, but such inwardly facing seams tend to rub and irritate the skin of the wearer.
Other known methods to make disposable training pants openable, are the use of perforations or scoring to weaken the sides of the training pants or the use of chain stitching at the seams which allows the seams to unravel by pulling on a loose thread. However, most disposable training pants are made using thin, nonwoven materials. It is difficult to control the strength of thin, nonwoven materials with perforations or scoring. And, although chain stitching provides a very garment-like appearance, it often results in premature unraveling and separation of the seam, or alternatively it is inconvenient to find and get a hold of the loose thread to unravel the seam.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment with an improved means of opening the undergarment to facilitate removal from the user.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment which has a region on at least one side of the undergarment which is substantially free from extra mass such as absorbent material or elastic legbands or waistbands, and can be easily torn without the use of perforations or scoring.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment having seams which are firmly secured without affecting the disposable undergarment's ability to be opened.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment which will have a garment-like appearance and feel.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment with an improved means of controlling the disposable undergarment's strength and ability to open.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a disposable undergarment with an improved means of opening which will allow the disposable undergarment to be constructed of a wider range of materials.